Boardwalk Empire - Season 4 Discussion Thread

Seems like a rather elaborate plot for Pinkerton's to get Gillian. And her arc mightn't be done yet. There might be more for her to suffer. Didn't quite a few states still have the death penalty back then?

Chalky was looking for an out even if he mightn't have realized it. Maybe as a younger man he dreamt of having and achieving certain things, but when he finally had them it wasn't what he thought it would be. In truth that happens to a lot of people whether they're good or bad. Also the problem with making it up the ladder no matter how secure you think you are there's always someone looking to knock you off.

Seems like a rather elaborate plot for Pinkerton's to get Gillian. And her arc mightn't be done yet. There might be more for her to suffer. Didn't quite a few states still have the death penalty back then?

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God, I hope not. To me, she's a great example of an overused character like I described earlier in the thread. The last thing I'd want to see is her trying to scheme her way out of a jail cell. To me the character has become a joke as they've reduced the effectiveness of the character by hanging on to her for too long when the better thing would have been to just kill her off last season.

Bringing Gillian back, giving her some measure of redemption, then punishing her for her past crimes wasn't a bad idea. The problem was that her entire story this season was unrelated to everything else on the show. At least in past seasons she was tied up with Jimmy or Rosetti, but this year she was doing her own thing and they unnecessarily dragged that across the whole season.

Meanwhile, there's a bunch of interesting storylines that have developed into a bit of a mess. The finale has to resolve the Dr Narcisse story, the Eli/Bureau storyline, the Chicago stuff, the Chalky/Nucky stuff, potentially some stuff involving Rothstein, and some stuff involving Richard (according to the trailer). That's a lot of material, and I fear that it will be rushed, just like the season 3 finale. All that time spent on Gillian could have been better spent spacing out the other stories so we didn't get this end-rush.

All of what happened with Gillian could have easily been resolved in the first two or three episodes to make way for other things. The season could have started with her already being under investigation. I'd happily trade her off with more Margaret screen time.

Good that Eli is now in Chicago, although living here I really never consider myself "outwest" I am sure that Narcisse will end up playing a role next season. Torrio's hit was accurate enough for me as well. Not a bad season ender as things go but Not a lot left dangling for next season.

Eh, I was not satisfied with the ending on many fronts. After all this set-up it sort of just ends in a jumbled mess.

Harrow was one of my favorite characters, did they really need to make him kill an innocent before going out? Just thinking about how much anguish he must have felt in his final moments knowing that he killed the wrong person. Another great Eli/Nucky showdown but then the son kind of just drops in and it all falls apart. Now Nucky is sending him to Cicero and is coincidentally being picked up by Mueller. Chalky confronts Nucky but it gets resolved off screen. Chalky and Narcisse get a showdown, but then not really. They talk for a bit but Chalky is probably stalling Narcisse to set up the shot. But then it gets interrupted in the end with the shot anyways. It almost feels like they set this all up because they thought Chalky would be a more interesting character without his family. All that set up with Gillian and the pinkerton and we get a two minute trial that gets resolved with Gillian going to jail for contempt and Harrow asking Nucky for the location of Jimmy's body. The assassination attempt was good, but then that thread ends with a scene with Torrio just telling Capone to take everything. Nucky gets picked up by the feds, the next we see him he's just chatting with his nephew.

It almost feels like they decided to go a completely different direction and as a result just ended the storylines as quickly as possible while getting the characters wherever they're supposed to be for next season.

Torrio and Capone went down pretty much as seen. As for the rest, this does feel like half way through a season finale. Too many plots were going on this season which could have been left alone. Richard, Gillian, and Tommy could have been dropped completely at the end of three, or finished up in a tidy knot in the first few episodes rather than this and given more play to the other stories. Margaret was completely wasted and may as well not have been here. I hope that gets better used next year. And Chalky and Narcisse need a real and final show down.

Richard's fate was predictable, but still welled up a little . I was just wondering if we'd ever seen actor's pre-war face when that last beautiful shot in dream came up.

Pretty much bummed out by series now and had small fantasy it might well be time to bid adieu to loved ones (Nucky retires to Cuba, Margaret settles down in NY) and next season a spin-off series focussed principally on Chicago, where the three remaining best characters are now.

Yeah, too much was going on this season, and as a result, they had to deal with closing a lot of plot threads this finale, which while OK in general, made it feel rather uneven and unsatisfying since everything had to be done rather quickly. Would have made more sense to close some of them in earlier episodes. In general, I didn't find this season as engaging as the last.

How many of the cast remain in Atlantic City now? Assuming Gillian is going to prison and wont be in season 5, that leaves Nucky, Willy, and Mickey. More major characters are now in NYC or Chicago individually than in Atlantic City. Weird.

Richard's death is one of those situations where it sucks to be right. That being said...

Harrow was one of my favorite characters, did they really need to make him kill an innocent before going out? Just thinking about how much anguish he must have felt in his final moments knowing that he killed the wrong person.

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I actually think that was the only ending Richard deserved. I think he was a fantastic character, probably my favourite on the show, but he was a killer for hire with the blood of many men on his soul. It doesn't matter that he didn't like that life, those crimes can't be excused that easily. Letting him get away with it to start a new life would have been cheap, as would letting him die some heroic sacrifice. Richard died alone with the deaths of all those he killed weighting heavily on his conscience, and that was a perfectly fitting end to an amazing character.